"As the end of
the month is here, we bring the comparative data for Greek camps
between the end of September and the end of October. In the frame
of this month there have been 2895 new arrivals on Greek islands,
with majority of people landing on Samos. Hotspots on 5 Greek
islands are unbelievably overcrowded with overpassing capacity
in some places for more than three times. In totality, there
are currently 15844 refugees stranded on the islands and official
capacity is only 8085. For more graphic data here
is a link to interactive graph of comparison of arrival numbers
in September and October."

MSF issued a report
on encampment system in Greece and what it those to those most
vulnerable

"Behind this dry
numbers there is a certain increase of human suffering and despair
that is detailed in recently published MSF 2016 report on Greece:
Vulnerable People Get Left Behind. By the MSF research,
many of those coming to Greek shores are not initially properly
processed as to determine whether they suffer from mental or
physical problems due to the fact that the interviews are short
and are done by the personnel that is not sufficiently trained
to recognize those signs. Therefore, vulnerable people are placed
in the camps where their state deteriorates rapidly stemming
possible prospects of future integration and healing."

Jungle or the surface
of the moon - only unaccompanied minors left standing

"Moving
further more to the west, as the Jungle has been made into the
surface of the moon, around 1500 unaccompanied minors are still
left without resettlement plan and sleeping in shipping containers
on the site where the jungle has been. Calais Kitchen, Refugee
community kitchen and Little Ashram Kitchen are trying to provide
food and water to the stranded minors who are fenced off in the
area which, by the reports, proves to be difficult since the
area is guarded and not many passes are issued for entrance."

" October marked
a record monthly high in the number of migrants arriving in Italy
in recent years, with over 27,000 people reaching its shores.

Italy's interior ministry
released figures Thursday showing that 26,161 people -- almost
all from West Africa and the Horn of Africa -- arrived here this
month. Almost another 1,000 were pulled from their dinghies later
that day."

"Allegations that
young family was deported despite lodging asylum claims in Greece
weaken basis for EU-Turkey deal

A group of Syrian refugees
including a couple with four young children detained in Turkey
say they were tricked into being deported from Greece last month
without having their asylum claims processed.

In the first case of
its kind since the start of the EU-Turkey migration pact, at
least eight Syrians were allegedly sent back to Turkey in October
despite lodging asylum claims in Greece.

The allegations weaken
the legal basis for the EU-Turkey deal, which was reached in
March on the assumption that all refugees arriving in Greece
would have access to a fair asylum procedure.

According to documents
shared by the applicants with the Guardian, the refugees were
initially given the chance to apply for asylum after landing
in Greece on 9 October. But 11 days later, before their applications
were fully processed, they say they were tricked by EU and Greek
officials into returning to Turkey."

"Greek Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras and Italian Mateo Rezi could be an effective nice
front against those xenophobic EU member-states that refuse to
accept asylum seekers. I have the feeling that the first steps
in this direction are already under way  nevertheless,
the South Europe Solidarity Summit in September.

"Without exception
every report on the refugee situation on Greek frontier islands
such as Samos agree that the refugees stuck in the hotspots are
suffering and that it is getting worse, week by week. In the
10 days leading up to 25th October 2016 there were 758 new arrivals
on Samos with just 139 departures according to the local authority.
All of them have been pushed into the Camp. Virtually every space
has been taken up by tents. There are now close to 3,000 refugees
in a fenced enclosure which is intended for 800. There is absolutely
nothing positive to say about the Camp. This week we met a journalist
from New York who had recently visited refugee camps in Turkey
and Lebanon who told us that the Samos camp was the worst she
had seen.

Despite the mountains
of reports and statements condemning the treatment of refugees
arriving on the Greek islands, nothing improves. This starkly
contrasts with the speed in which security and border hardening
measures are implemented and expanded."

"The British state
has regulated relationships between its citizens and certain
foreigners since at least the Colonial era. Todays border
controls continue to police peoples intimate lives and
retain sexist and racist assumptions."

"These five observations
offer entry points into the moral complexities of human smuggling
and the legal imperative of decriminalising humanitarian acts
of the facilitation of irregular entry. Ultimately, if the EC
intends to provide recommendations to amend the Facilitation
Directive that reflect the need to avoid criminalising humanitarian
assistance to irregular migrants, it will first need to more
narrowly and clearly define acts of the facilitation of irregular
entry worthy of criminalisation. The ECs challenge lies
with the fact that the primary purpose of the Facilitation Directive
is to deter irregular migration and a narrower directive would
ultimately undermine this objective.

In the current crisis,
human smugglers  and all individuals deemed as such 
have become Europes scapegoat. Targeting human smugglers
worthy of criminalisation and those humanitarian smugglers
worthy of praise is Europes Band-Aid solution to a problem
that can only be solved through safe and legal pathways for refugees
to reach Europe. "

&COPY; Statewatch ISSN 1756-851X.
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